1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to a network system in which a server on a network provides device information on devices on another network to devices on the server's network.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a network system in which a terminal device is able to use network devices (e.g., a printer, a scanner or a facsimile device) is widely used. For example, when a terminal device outputs a search request toward an inside network in a multicast or broadcast network device for obtaining device information of the network device, the network device which received the search packet returns its own device information to the server.
Meanwhile, if the network system is configured such that two networks are connected via a router, and the router blocks a one-to-many communication packet from passing therethrough, a search packet formed by a multicast packet and transmitted by a terminal device on one of the networks does not reach a device on the other network. Therefore, a user of a terminal device on one of the networks needs to input device information on a device on the other network manually to the user's terminal device.
In Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2003-6133A (hereafter, referred to as JP 2003-6133A), a network system configured to avoid such a trouble some work is provided. In this network system, a server acquires device information from a device on the other network, and a device on the server's network is able to obtain the device information on devices on the other network from the server.
According to the system disclosed in JP2003-6133A, the server returns device information on devices on the other network to a terminal device in response to a request output by the terminal device.
However, in the network system disclosed in JP 2003-6133A, a terminal device needs to transmit a request for device information to the server in unicast so that the device information on devices on the other network can be obtained. Therefore, it is required to implement a command for searching for device information in each terminal device.
In other words, in the conventional network system the terminal device needs to transmit a dedicated request signal for obtaining device information on devices on the other network in addition to supporting a search request for device information on devices on its own network in broadcast or multicast. Therefore, the user of the terminal device needs to operate the terminal device to save identification information (e.g., a network address or a node name) identifying the server. Such an operation for saving the identification information is very trouble some for the user particularly in the case where the number of terminal devices on one network is relatively large.